New Financial and Human Resources Systems at SFSU

San Francisco State University is proud to be a leader in the deployment of information technology for students, faculty, and staff. As part of this effort, Administration and Finance are pleased to announce the availability of a new Financial Management System (FMS) and several new modules for the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) on July 1, 2004. FMS will replace SFSU's legacy accounting system, FRS, and three modules will be available for this release: Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and General Leger. The HRMS module E-TRAC, which is currently handling all personnel transactions for staff, will be expanded to include faculty and student employees. In addition, campus timekeepers will be entering time and absence data for student and hourly employees directly into a web-based online system.

Finance Users

HRMS Users

CSU Common Management System

Finance Users

The use of FRS Account Code and Subcode are being replaced by a set of FMS chartfields. These chartfields will give departments increased control and flexibility in how expenses are tracked.

Agency and Reporting Unit will no longer be the primary vehicle for identifying organizational units within the colleges and departments on campus. In FMS, there will be a Department ID to uniquely identify each organizational unit on campus.

FMS will offer a web-based online application for entering Purchasing Requisitions. The requisitions will then be tracked by the system through sourcing, creation of a Purchase Order, receiving, and payment. FMS will offer a wide range of queries and reports to track the progress of the requisition.

The FMS database is fully integrated with official personnel and student records on campus. This will ensure that reimbursements of expenses and other payments to faculty and staff, financial aid payments to students, and payments to business vendors are made in a timely manner and checks are sent to the correct addresses. The system will also store detailed payment history online for as long as the information is needed.

The new General Ledger will offer flexibility and a level of detail in tracking financial transactions that will accommodate the whole spectrum of diverse business operations on campus, including the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and the College of Extended Learning, among others. New reports and queries based on input from the campus user community will be made available as part of the system. FMS will also greatly simplify and modernize SFSU's financial reporting to the Chancellor's Office, the State Controller's Office, and our auditors.

Human Resources Users

In HRMS, the new E-TRAC functionality will simplify the reappointment of student employees and temporary faculty. Many new queries and reports will also be added for position and personnel transactions.

For Time and Labor, the upcoming release is the first step in making all time and absence reporting available for all employees online. For now, timekeepers in the departments will enter time for hourly employees and student workers online. The time reports will then be approved online before they are automatically forwarded to payroll for processing. Again, all the data are stored online and available for queries and reports for as long as needed.

Monies spent on salaries and benefits for our employees make up 80% of SFSU's budget. Needless to say, effective financial management and reporting are of critical importance. The new HRMS system offers new management to track labor-related costs at a very detailed level without requiring departments to create new positions when funding changes. One resulting benefit is that employees can receive a single paycheck, while the accounting is handled by the Budget Management department in cooperation with campus budget coordinators.

California State University
Common Management System (CMS)

The CSU has been looking for a replacement for its current (legacy) administrative systems. These are the systems that provide financial management, payroll, and human resources information for the institution. They also perform a host of other back-room operations that go largely unnoticed.

Because vendor support is diminishing or being eliminated for the legacy systems, in 1997 the Chancellor's Office began the Common Management System (CMS) effort to consolidate the management systems of the campuses and to identify one software package that would support the Human Resources and Financials systems. Several software solutions were reviewed, and PeopleSoft Human Resources and Financials were selected. The goal of the CMS Project is to have all 23 California State University campuses implement this software to support critical administrative functions by 2006.

San Francisco State University is in production on the Human Resources Management System (HRMS), and will implement the second phase of HRMS and the Financial Management System (FMS) in July 2004.